


Love Forever After

by BarPurple



Series: BarPurple's House of Horror 2016 [10]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 10:37:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8369083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: When she'd banished Rumple across the townline Belle knew deep down that she would see him again, but this wasn't what she'd been expecting.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [belizafryler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/belizafryler/gifts).



> "Love never dies; Love will continue, when you're gone." One of Rumbelle dies. Prompt from Kindleheartzyou

_“It’s forever, dearie”_

_“I understand.”_

_The open doors in front of them, the Dark One at her side, his hand at he back, the sweep of her skirts, the shocked looks on Papa and Gaston’s faces, the fear roiling in her stomach…_

 

Belle gasped and sat bolt upright in bed, she’d not dreamed of that day in years. She ran her hands over her nightgown, reassuring herself that it was cotton not the satin ballgown she’d worn that day so long ago. Her breathing had just settled to normal when she heard a noise from downstairs. She threw the covers back and grabbed the sword she’d taken to keeping by her bed. In the dark she walked softly to the top of the stairs.

“What the hell am I doing here?”

Belle switched the lights on, her eyes needing confirmation of the voice that her ears recognized so well, but her fingers tightened on the hilt of the sword, just in case.

“Rumple?”

“Belle!”

She’d never seen him so dishevelled, the top two buttons of his shirt were undone, his tie was missing, his cuffs flapped loose around his wrists because his cufflinks were gone; overall he looked dusty and grimy. His eyes shone bright with hope as he looked at her; memories of the last time she had seen him at the town line crowded her mind and that hope in his eyes became too much for her to bear. She dipped her head and leaned the sword against the wall before she started down the stairs towards him. 

“Belle.”

The sound of her name made her meet his eyes; there was that overwhelming hope again. Belle sat down on the step and hugged her nightdress around her knees. Rumple pulled his out stretched hand back to his side; it curled into a loose fist that bounced against his thigh. Belle took a deep breath, her next words came out in a rush.

“How are you here? I ban…. you were….”

She couldn’t say the words, couldn’t remind him directly of their last meeting. The guilt about what she had done had been building slowly over the days and weeks since she’d forced him to leave, now faced with him, seeing him look so reduced put a sharp edge on the dull feeling she’d been living with.

Rumple’s fingers twitched as he frowned and tried to think. He’d been somewhere else then he’d been here, the how and why was a fog. He tried to relax, to work through the mental block. His eyes closed, a rising sense of dread tried to push him in the opposite direction, but he forced his way past the fear. 

“I was ….”

His eyes slammed open as the memories barrelled out of the fog. Around him the lights flickered and trinkets rattled on their shelves.

 _A bland nameless town on the way to New York, the last money from pawning his cufflinks had paid for a bus ticket, there was only enough left for food or shelter, his empty belly made him chose food, the abandoned house he’d broken into would serve for shelter, the cold brick against his back as he huddled from the wind, the dull ache in his chest growing with every shaking breath,_ Bae _, the pain grew, then agonizing pain,_ Belle _and … then he was home._

Rumple staggered and gripped his chest; the lights glowed steady again and the rattling slowed as everything settled back into place. Belle rose from her seat on the stairs and made toward him, but stopped as he began to laugh.

“Rumple?”

He slapped his hand against his chest; his laughter was verging on hysterics now.

“Rumple! What’s wrong?”

“I died! I’m dead!”

Belle had reached the bottom step now, from this angle she could see the mirror that hung on the wall, she could see the hall reflected in it, all of the hall except for Rumple. 

“You’re a ghost.”

His laughter became sobs; there was bitterness in his eyes when he looked at her now. Rumple gulped in air that he had no need off and calmed himself.

“I’m dead. I’m a ghost and I’m here, back in the last place, the only place I called home in this realm.”

As he spoke those words he knew them to be a lie, the pink house in Storybrooke had been where he lived, but it had never been a home, not until Belle returned to his life. Belle was his home, at least she had been.

“What are we going to do?”

 

The first thing they did was check the Dagger; Rumple rolled his eyes when he saw that Belle had hidden the most power artifact in all the realms in a kitchen drawer. Oddly the Dagger of the Dark One looked right at home among potato ricers and pastry wheels and other strange rarely used culinary implements. 

“It’s blank?”

Belle sounded confused as she held the blade out for Rumple to see. He gave her a giggle reminiscent of the old Imp. 

“Ding dong the Dark One’s dead, dearie.”

Before she could react to that the doorbell rang, followed by a hammering knock. Belle sighed and dodged past Rumple to answer the door. Emma stood on the other side, Killian just behind her.

“Belle. I’m sorry, we have some news. You’re going to need to sit down.”

She opened the door wide and ushered them into the lounge with a wave of her hand. The three of them stood around awkwardly until Belle broke the tension by stating; “Rumple is dead.”

Emma tried to take her hand to comfort her, but Belle stepped back and kept the distance between them. Emma looked a little put out by the action, but carried on with what she’d come here to say.

“Yes. I’m sorry. I got a call from a police department in New York State; they found his body a few hours ago. It looks like a freak electrical fault killed him. How did you know?”

Rumple walked through the wall between the kitchen and the lounge. He couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the shocked gasps from the Saviour and her pirate.

“That wasn’t an electrical fault Miss Swan that was the Darkness leaving my dying body.”

Emma leaped away from Belle and boggled at him. It only took her a second then she found her voice and began talking through the problem in front of her, Rumple was impressed, she really was her mother’s daughter.

“You’re dead, but you’re here.”

“Yes, Miss Swan. It appears that my afterlife is to be a ghost here in Storybrooke, not exactly what I had hoped for, but then again I’d never planned on dying, again.”

“How did you die?”

Rumple shrugged and fiddled with his loose cuffs. It hurt his pride to be seen by others in this beggarly state, but in truth his attire was the least of his problems right now.

“Three centuries of Darkness tends to take its toll. Without magic, my heart didn’t last that long.”

Out of the corner of his eye Rumple saw Belle tense. He felt a sudden swell of bitter pleasure, she should feel guilty; she had banished him. Miss Swan didn’t notice the other woman’s discomfort, she still had questions.

“What happened to the Darkness? Now it’s free is that going to be a problem?”

“It burnt off into the ether of the Land without Magic. The Darkness was magic, it can’t survive out there.”

Hook had strolled over to within a few feet of Rumple; he suddenly reached out with his hook, hissing in surprise as it passed right through Rumple’s torso, earning him a glare from Rumple, which Killian ignored as he moved his hook back into Rumple ghostly body. The lights flickered again and Killian jumped back as if he’d been shocked.

“Don’t do that, dearie.”

Killian gave him a shrug, “Sorry mate, never met a ghost before.”

Emma looked interested in Killian’s ghost test, but covered it with a frown as she turned to Belle. 

“We’re setting off in a little while to bring his,” She glanced awkwardly at Rumple, “your body home. We’ll have the funeral as soon as possible.”

There wasn’t much to say after that so Killian and Emma left. As they were walking down the porch steps Belle heard Killian say; “I honestly never thought Belle would be the one responsible for the Crocodile’s death.”

Her heart twisted as she closed the door and turned to Rumple, he was staring at her. His brown eyes were cold.

“I never thought I’d agree with the pirate, but you did kill me.”

“Rumple! I banished you, but I never intended for you to die!”

“And what did you think would happen Belle? You forced me across the town line with nothing but the clothes on my back and twenty dollars in my wallet. At first I thought it was somewhat poetic, you banishing me as I banished you from the Dark Castle, but the differences became clear all too quickly. I sent you into a realm that you knew, where you had a home waiting for you, and with more than enough gold to make that journey in comfort. You sent me into a realm without magic, with pocket change. There was nowhere for me to go out there, no home waiting for me. I lived with magic, relied on it for centuries, what did you think would happen when I was cut off from it like that? My heart had been failing for years, long before the Curse, magic was the only thing keeping me alive.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“I wish I could believe it would have made a difference if you had.”

Rumple flickered from sight and Belle’s tears started to flow.

 

It took a whole day for Emma and Charming to return with Rumple’s body. They came back late that night with tales of destruction; the abandoned house Rumple had died in was split in two, local police were content that it had been a freak accident, although the location of Storybrooke had raised a difficult few questions that Emma had to dodge. Snow and Regina had dropped by mid-morning, they had taken it on themselves to make funeral arrangements. Rumple had left the basement and put his foot down about one point; there would be no open casket. Regina had tried to argue, but Belle had stood by Rumple and refused, she told them that it would be too painful for her to see his body, but privately she didn’t want him on display, she didn’t trust the townsfolk not to stick pins into the corpse just to make sure the Dark One was really dead.

Belle and Rumple had been avoiding each other as much as possible, he’d retreated to the basement, the sounds of his spinning wheel haunted Belle. Distraction came via the ever ringing doorbell; the pink house had never had so many visitors, all approaching under the pretence of offering her condolences. It didn’t take long to realise the truth was they wanted a glimpse of the ghost of the Dark One. When the Blue Fairy arrived on the doorstep, Belle yelled at the nun and told her to clear off before slamming the door in her face.

“I see you got them out of the Hat.”

Rumple was loitering at the far end of the hall. Belle huffed and shook her head.

“It only took me three days to find the spell. Regina got all the thanks since she worked the magic.”

A sneer curled his lips.

“Being a hero not living up to your expectations, sweetheart.”

She wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of the viciousness in his tone. Her frayed patience snapped and she snarled back.

“No! It’s not, but then again I’m not much of a hero am I? I killed my True Love!”

Rumple’s eyebrows quirked as he fiddled with the ring on his finger, his wedding ring she realized. Her hand moved to her own, she’d never taken it off.

“You caused the death of the Dark One, that’s got to give you some hero points.”

“Are we really going to argue about this now?”

“Tick tock, dearie. It’s my funeral tomorrow; laid to rest doesn’t just mean my bones.”

He vanished again. 

It hit her then that Rumple was scared, it was fear making him lash out. Belle chewed her lip and thought about it for a moment, ghosts were said to be restless spirits who need a proper burial to let them move on to the next life. It occurred to her that Rumple had good reason to be scared of what was waiting for him on the other side. She longed to comfort him, but there were some things that need to be said first. She could hear the creaking of the spinning wheel; she knew that he could hear her. She took a deep breath and said loudly.

“Banishing you was cruel and stupid. I was so angry with you, I thought it was the dark magic you were trying to cast that upset me the most, but I’ve realised I was angry because you didn’t trust me enough to explain why you wanted to be free of the Dagger. But I didn’t trust you enough to tell you about Anna did I? I understand now why you’ve want to keep something that you’re ashamed of secret, why you’d try to fix it alone. I was ashamed of my past with Anna, but that’s nothing to the shame I feel for using the thing you hate most to control you.”

She paused and listened, the wheel had stopped.

“It’s my fault that you didn’t trust me. I spent far too long holding on to the idea that heroes were better, something to aspire to be. I know that’s not true, heroes are as flawed as anyone else, but I’ve always been scared of the darkness inside me. Yes, I probably would have tried to find a way to free you from the Dagger that didn’t involve killing Hook, or trapping the fairies, but we would have worked it out together if I’d been brave enough to let go of the idea I had to be someone I’m not, that I had to make you into someone you’re not.”

The lights flickered as Rumple appeared in front of her. He wore a frown and was twisting his fingers together, a sure sign that he was nervous, but the anger had faded from his eyes.

“I knelt by the town line for hours, hoping you’d come back and let me in. Every minute I waited I got angrier at myself for being stupid enough to believe you loved me. I hated you because you’d proved that no one can love me for me.”

It broke Rumple’s heart to watch the tears rolling down Belle’s face, he acted on instinct and moved toward her, but stopped himself before he touched her. There was still too much pain, but since they were talking now he felt brave enough to get somethings off his chest.

“I wanted to be a hero for you, but I couldn’t live up to your expectations, and the thought of failing you was terrifying. I was scared, scared that trusting you would push you away. And I still managed to do just that. I knew I was dying in that hovel, and I thought of Bae, but my last thought was of you. I wanted so badly to see you one last time. And I got my wish but all I’ve done since I arrived is pushed you away again, because even dead I’m still a coward.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes.

“You’re not a coward Rumple. You sacrificed yourself to save the town from Pan. You’ve saved me countless times. Your magic might have come from Darkness, but you have used it for good. I’m so sorry, for everything.”

“Me too, sweetheart.”

They reached for each other’s hands, slowly and hesitantly. Belle had expected his fingers would be cold, but they were as warm and soft as they had ever been. She’d known he could touch things if he wanted to, his spinning was proof of that, she felt glad that he was choosing to touch her rather than becoming insubstantial. His eyes were fixed on their joined hands.

“Do you know, I think this is the first time we’ve talked about our feelings honestly.”

Belle gave a damp sniff and managed a watery smile.

“We never do anything the easy way do we?”

They didn’t talk much more, but they spent the rest of the evening in each others company. It was peaceful. Rumple finally forced Belle to go to bed.

“I won’t have you yawning through my funeral, sweetheart.”

He left her to sleep, but the sound of his name had him rushing to her bedside after a few hours. Belle was in the midst of a dream, shifting fretfully in her sleep. Rumple reached out and gently tapped her nose.

“Belle? Belle.”

She surfaced from sleep with a little snort which made him smile. 

“Rumple?”

“You called out in your sleep. Are you alright?”

Belle stretched and smiled sleepily at him.

“Yeah, I was dreaming about our wedding.”

“That was a good day.”

She held her hand out to him.

“Stay with me?”

Rumple nodded and sat on the edge of the bed. Belle laughed softly at him.

“You know I can’t sleep with you watching me. Lie down.”

He had the feeling that he didn’t need to sleep, but it was soothing to be close to Belle, and it wasn’t long before they both drifted off to sleep.

 

The alarm clock pulled Rumple from sleep, but hitting the floor with a thump woke him fully. Apparently he’d drifted off the bed during the night. He rolled onto his back to find Belle peering over the edge of the bed at him, her hair a glorious sleep mussed mess. He grinned up at her.

“I see you still hog the bed.”

Belle laughed and threw a pillow at him. Getting ready for Rumple’s funeral was a strange experience, they were laughing and joking with each other as Belle ate breakfast and tried to pick an outfit, but every now and then they catch each others eyes and remember that this could be their last few hours together. They avoided the obvious subject until they were standing by the front door ready to leave for the cemetery. Belle wound her fingers around Rumple’s hand and faced him.

“If this is it, if this is our final goodbye, I want you to know that I love you.”

Rumple’s free hand cupped her face, tears sparkled in his eyes.

“For the hard times and the arguments I have always loved you and I always will.”

Their lips met in a gentle kiss. The magic that exploded from them shook the pink house and was felt across the whole town.

 

Emma and Killian found Belle’s body in the hall of Gold’s house. There was no sign of violence, after a brief examination Whale declared her death to be natural causes. The funeral of Rumplestiltskin was delayed for a day so Belle could be buried at the same time. The town had mixed feelings on the double funeral, they were glad the Dark One was gone, but sad that Belle was dead as well. At the wake Henry explained the latest story from the Quill to the heroes, but he didn’t show them the storybook.

“Belle and Grandfather were triple linked by magic, the original contract, True Love and marriage. Wherever they have gone, they’ve gone together, it’s their happy ending.”

Emma cast a curious look at Henry, “Where have they gone?”

Henry shrugged and picked up his hot chocolate, “I don’t know.”

His Mom gave him a slight frown, but nodded when her superpower didn’t ping. Realising that this was all Henry had to say on the matter his family drifted away to chat quietly with other people. When no one was looking at him Henry slipped outside and headed to the library. Once inside he pulled the storybook from his bag and flipped it open. He took a quick look at the story before he tore out the pages that told the tale of Belle and Rumple’s final moments in Storybrooke. He folded the pages and tucked them into a heavy out-of-date math book, nobody would find them there. For a moment he wondered if he should feel guilty for hiding the truth from the rest of his family. No, Beauty and the Beast had won their happy ending and deserved to enjoy it in peace.

 

_The Castle of the Dark One has long been associated with evil magic and desperation. After the Dark Curse, (also known as The First Curse, or Regina’s Curse), the castle was briefly inhabited by a band of outlaws, (see Robin Hood and his Merry Men), but that occupation came to an abrupt end not three years after the First Curse. The castle now lies abandoned, but travellers who venture near tell of hearing music and seeing a dancing couple in the brightly lit windows. There are even stories of brave souls who have sought shelter for a night within the walls; they speak of the creaking of a spinning wheel, the rustling of paper and a scent of freshly brewed tea. None have stayed until morning. – A Recent History of the Enchanted Forest (author unknown)_


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